5th Gen Intel NUC with 32GB Memory

Intel NUCs with ESXi are being used as home servers and in many home labs. If you are generally interested in running ESXi on Intel NUCs, read this post first. Officially, it is limited to 16GB memory which might come a little bit short for virtualization labs. Recently Crucial has launched 16GB DDR3L modules for an affordable price (Intelligent Memory was the first in the market with 16GB modules, but they were quite expensive). I've ordered two Crucial 16GB modules (CT204864BF160B) and tested them in my 5th Gen Intel NUC (NUC5i5MYHE).

Both modules are detected in the UEFI without any issues:

ESXi 6.0 boots and detects the memory flawlessly:

The Crucial 16GB DDR3L SODIMM module are available as single module or kit:

Hi Florian, this is great info that you have shared. Thank you. Did you actually run up some VM's on the 32 Gig NUC and confirm that all were running OK for a few days? No PSOD's, or errors? Appreciate the feedback as I am keen to also do this, but it's a few more dollars when you do the conversion from US to AUS. Cheers, Adam

So I'm interested in using the DS57U5 for a ESXI cluster instead of the NUCs, the inclusion of a second Intel NIC seems incredibly useful. Have you done any testing of these, or would you be willing to? I'd be especially interested to know if these RAM kits also work in this chassis.

Yeah, I think the DS57U5 is really cool with ESXi. Both NICs have different chipsets, i218LM and i211. From what I've heard it is possible to use both, with some tweaking. I test everything with ESXi where I can get my hands on but unfortunately my money is not unlimited ;-)

Tried the NUC D54250WYB with 32Gb and it looked like it would work but Windows 2012R2 BSOD on it. My bet is that ESX will also fail. In my Lenovo T550 it does work however. Might as well have a more portable lab :-)